{"id":52970,"date":"2025-05-12T05:39:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=52970"},"modified":"2025-05-12T05:41:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:41:41","slug":"prince-of-peace-pope-leo-xiv-calls-for-an-end-to-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/12\/prince-of-peace-pope-leo-xiv-calls-for-an-end-to-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince of Peace: Pope Leo XIV Calls for an End to War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

The new pope, Leo XIV, is off to an encouraging start as he calls for peace (from CNN):<\/p>\n

Pontiff calls for \u2018authentic, just and lasting peace\u2019
\n<\/strong>Pope Leo XIV delivered his first Sunday blessing<\/a> from the balcony of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica on Sunday and used the address to pray for peace. \u201cIn today\u2019s dramatic scenario of a third world war being fought piecemeal, as Pope Francis said, I too turn to the world\u2019s leaders with an ever timely appeal: never again war!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd during the Regina Caeli prayer from the main central loggia of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica in the Vatican, on May 11, 2025 (Photo by Massimo Valicchia\/NurPhoto)<\/p><\/div>\n

Sadly for the pope, U.S. leaders believe that peace is achieved through military strength and total dominance, unleashing \u201cwarriors\u201d across the world. It doesn\u2019t matter who the president is or which political party is putatively in charge. The Imperial State insists on colossal spending on wars and preparations for the same.<\/p>\n

With respect to Gaza and the ongoing death and destruction there, Leo XIV had this to say:<\/p>\n

“I am deeply pained by what is happening. Let the fighting cease immediately, let humanitarian aid be provided to the exhausted civilian population, and may all hostages be released.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sensible words. But it will take far more than words to stop Israel from its destruction of Gaza and its evisceration and evacuation of the Palestinians there.<\/p>\n

Leo XIV also called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine while highlighting the suffering of the Ukrainian people.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cpeace\u201d has almost disappeared from American discourse. Leo is helping to reinvigorate it. U.S. leaders are doing their best to sabotage it with war budgets that approach and exceed a trillion dollars yearly (this coming from a Christian nation, at least according to its leaders).<\/p>\n

Leo is pointing the way. It\u2019s time all those self-confessed Christians in America start following the Prince of Peace rather than the god of war.<\/p>\n

William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), professor of history, and a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), an organization of critical veteran military and national security professionals. His personal substack is Bracing Views<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. The new pope, Leo XIV, is off to an encouraging start as he calls for peace (from CNN): Pontiff calls for \u2018authentic, just and lasting peace\u2019 Pope Leo XIV delivered his first Sunday blessing from the balcony of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica on Sunday and used the address […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[758],"class_list":["post-52970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52977,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52970\/revisions\/52977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52970"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=52970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}